Let's Talk About Burnout

Real talk time… being an entrepreneur is hard, really hard. We have been incredibly fortunate that our tiny little shop has been so well received by our community and so we haven’t had to worry AS MUCH about the financial side of things as many new businesses do. However, even that is a very subjective statement. We are managing to come out even each month but that has definitely come at a cost.

For starters, we don’t have staff, it’s just the two of us, all day, every day. I am so grateful that I love making coffee and sharing that experience with anyone who comes in day to day, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still get tired. It doesn’t mean we don’t wish we could have an extra day off. It doesn’t mean we don’t get sick. I definitely underestimated how heavy the load can get sometimes. I’ve worked in coffee off and on for almost 20 years, including LONG stretches in high volume shops with no days off for weeks and weeks, but I was still able to leave work at work when those days were done. The difference now is that work doesn’t end when the shop closes. There are finances and bookkeeping to do, supplies to order and pick up, the never-ending burden of social media, planning ahead (when possible), and a plethora of other duties that never seem to end. Death by a thousand papercuts is a very real thing.

The second tricky bit is separating work from life. We are a couple that run a business together so finding space where we can be a couple without the constant spectre of the business looming is not easy. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t noticing a difference in our relationship but we knew what we were signing up for when we started this. We’ve had a lot of fun finding new ways to connect with each other and have discovered so many new things we enjoy doing together. It also has made us realize that small moments of connection can be very significant. We also talk, ALL THE TIME so nothing ever has a chance to fester into a larger problem.

What we’ve had to learn is how to get creative when it comes to managing our energy, both professionally and personally. We have started to discover the incredible healing power of hobbies outside of work. We’ve also been incredibly fortunate to find some new friends who help fill our tanks periodically. Talking to other business owners about their struggles, their solutions to these same problems, or just taking ten minutes with them to realize we’re not alone in having hard times has been so therapeutic.

Now it’s not all doom and gloom trust me. We’ve fine-tuned our operation to a point that either one of us can handle the shop alone for much of the week so we have been able to take extra time to recharge, disconnect, and experience life outside of work. We also are reminded every day, multiple times a day, why we chose to do this. Every time we get to spend an extra minute chatting with you all about your lives, hearing about your kids, your pets, your parents, the good and the bad, the laughs and the tears, we feel so lucky that we are building a space where we all can connect, can share energy. You all don’t realize how much you give us each day. We are living out our dream and as hard as it can be sometimes, it’s something we would not trade for all the coffee in the world.

Building this little home away from home has been the most rewarding, and challenging, adventure of our lives. If it was easy, everyone would do it! We have so many more plans for the future of Gratitude Coffee and we can’t wait to share them all with you in good time. Someday we’ll look back at this first year and smile at how much we grew, as a business, as a couple, as people, and as members of this beautiful Gratitude community we’re all building together. If we get tired there’s always coffee right!??

Written by Heath